Budget Priorities

[Pierre Dolet notes from the cube he lives in . . .]

Our annual Budget review this year is very uncomplicated: we have to cut our operational expenditures drastically in order to pay for a few new friends at the Top.

Compare:

The Company must "plow with the horses we have."

Operations needs to be "lean and mean."

The executive branch "needs" a newly-created Vice President of Business Development.

We currently have a Vice President of Sales, a Vice President of Marketing, a Vice President of Advanced Marketing - and the President is, by his own declaration, "a market-oriented guy."

1 Vice President salary = 1 1/2 Director or 2 Managers or 3-5 Engineers or 5-8 Technical Specialists or 10 Line workers or 2 product development projects or 5 safety-required facility/equipment upgrades or 1 new manufacturing equipment that will cut a production line's costs in half.

But there is a Future:

We are also hiring 2 new outside consultants to supplement our existing staff of 6 consultants brought in last year - they hold "the company's promise in their heads."

To "save valuable resources," we are cutting loose the long-time consultant who is responsible for 30% of our patents and 50% of our patent applications.

We have priorities: new is better.